Imagine you're and old and deaf man. You once listened to music a lot, even composed it sometimes. On a hot summer night your dreams become weirder than ever, full of new unseen fantasies but cruel nevertheless. Was it a nightmare or a vision? And most of all... what is this shit all about? Well, mainly my thoughts on the new Fleshgod Apocalypse album seen from Beethoven's point of view, 200 years ago. Labyrinth indeed is not easily divided into its brutal and symphonic parts, it all makes it up to the one thing it has become. And that is already the first fact making it a better album than their previous record, Agony. The whole concept grew and the individual parts fit better together.

I must say I didn't like Agony in first place, it was just too mixed up with everything. But now I got to know what it should have been, what the band's original idea was. The new album isn't an easy listening either but after some time one gets into it. At first glance the weakest part surely was the Italian side of the music, e.g. the high pitched clean vocals appearing from time to time. I got used to it, though, the first time ever those kind of vocals actually grew on me. So, what can the listener expect with this one? The answer is balls. Fleshgod Apocalypse definitely need some balls for writing and playing their music and it also takes some to like it. Symphonic people becoming brutal, brutal people becoming symphonic, it's not an easy process.

Considering the metal side of Labyrinth, all performances must be applauded, especially the drummer giving a big middle finger to machine precision, however the hell he is able to do that with only two arms and two legs. Vocals appear in three different styles, which are the growled death metal ones, already discussed high pitched, and the classical female ones from a professional singer. Together with the other instruments it makes a great melting pot. Adding then the orchestrations raises it to a music which is already too-much-of-everything but still yearns for more. Listening from the beginning the average metalhead will be longing for "Prologue" somewhere in between the fifth and seventh song. But shortly after that interlude one is eager to continue on former paths. Finally the awesome track "Under Black Sails" gives the satisfaction to end the session with a good feeling.

Still some words on orchestral implementation? Well, it is always a difficult thing and very few bands have perfected the technique of adding a whole orchestra while getting a good mastering afterwards so the guitars won't perish. And somehow all of them used synthetic instruments, just as Fleshgod Apocalypse have done here. Their version isn't the best out there but comes quite close though, just a bit more gain to the guitars next time please. Favourite songs? No, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I found Agony to be an excellent mixture of the symphonic and death elements. It seemed to all complement each other on that album. So I'm not sure what this will be based on this review but I will certainly be checking it out.

I listened to these tracks but would rather enjoy the full album before buying

Then wait til it comes out and look up a (full album) upload on YouTube.

Sure, will do that or... download illegally but I will get an official copy too ! Just need to wait a couple of weeks after release so that I can buy the CD from the US and pay it half the pruice in France

Like what the review says, this sounds like they were going for the same type of concept as Agony but they carried it out much better. They made everything fit together well and had more variety, rather than making it sound like they played death metal while trying to drown it out with violins. I actually liked Agony, but I had to listen to it multiple times to really pick everything out and it still kind of feels like one massive song. So yeah, this basically has all the good points of Agony and less of its downsides.